Madgaon (MAQ): Asserting that passenger train operation on Konkan railway is posing a danger to the public using the service in view of the derailment of the goods trains earlier this month, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has told the Konkan Railway Corporation to get the entire Konkan railway route tested with Ultrasound Flaw Detectors (USFD) by trained departmental USFD operators.

The CRS has further issued strict directions to the Konkan railway to impose speed restrictions of 75 kmph on the entire KR route till USFD testing of entire KR route is completed by departmental USDF operator having valid RDSO’s certificate and after removing all defective rails and safety certificate is jointly signed by officials before submitting the same to the Commission.

The CRS has further recommended introduction of round-the-clock patrolling on the pattern of cold weather patrolling along the entire length of the Konkan railway.

While calling for safety precautions at tunnels, bridges, tunnels, bridge approaches and high embankments, the SRS has told the KR to set up a high-level Director-level committee to address all issues of safety. “It was a matter of chance that the train which derailed on rail fracture was a goods train. It would have been a disaster if a passenger train had met with an accident,” the report said. More info